


Force Ghost Sabacc Party

by hydianway



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Force Ghosts, Gen, Inappropriate Use of the Force, Life Advice With Dead Jedi Masters: Ahch-To Edition, Pre-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, To Cheat At Space Poker And/Or Space Chess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-07-27 02:24:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7599805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hydianway/pseuds/hydianway
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luke's self-imposed exile to Ahch'To is thoroughly crashed on by four Force Ghosts, each determined to out-cheat the others at the ghostly sabacc table and offer him important life advice in the most obtuse, irritating manner possible.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Force Ghost Sabacc Party

Luke Skywalker has no idea how his life has become _this_ overrun with Force Ghosts.

First it had been just Obi-Wan’s voice, which was fine-- a little creepy, true, but manageable. Sometimes he’d even been helpful!

Then there was the manifestation of Obi-Wan’s visible ghost, alongside Master Yoda and his father on Endor. That had been nice, actually, when all they were really doing was smiling at him and waving. The fact that his father appeared to be about his own age in his shimmery blue form was also a little creepy, but again, quite manageable.

After the Battle of Endor they had mostly left him alone, only showing up for the odd opaque pronouncement on the Way of the Jedi or the Will of the Force-- something about these pronouncements  that Luke couldn’t quite pinpoint definitely invited Significant Capitalisation-- or in Anakin’s case, this as well as awkward apologies and stilted attempts at father-son bonding.

Then Obi-Wan and Yoda had one day introduced him to the shiny and blue but still tall and imposing Qui-Gon Jinn-- “a great Jedi, he was, and Obi-Wan’s Master”-- and Qui-Gon had started stopping by to do the same. Luke noted that he was slightly better at mystic pronouncements than Obi-Wan, but slightly worse than Yoda.

Anakin, apparently, had yet to get the hang of them at all, and his tended to range from ‘outright nutty rambling’ to ‘possibly sound advice, delivered over-seriously and with little thought given to clarity.’ Luke’s brain rarely felt the need to add Significant Capitalisation to phrases from Anakin’s pronouncements. He supposed this was one of the distinctions between a Jedi Master and a Knight, and resolved to work on his aura of impenetrable serenity.

Years later, of course, Luke had fled to Ahch’To, and that seemed to be all the invitation Obi-Wan, Anakin, Yoda and Qui-Gon had needed to make his living room, such as it managed to be, the site for an any day, any time Force Ghost Sabacc Party.

(“Cosy!” says Anakin the first time he sees the room, looking around at Luke's single armchair, table, and the narrow bed in the corner with a dubious expression on his face.

Luke tries not to be offended. His father probably doesn’t mean to be rude, and Yoda, Qui-Gon, and Obi-Wan seem to be happy enough regardless.

“It’s much nicer than my place on Tatooine,” says Obi-Wan, with the reassuring smile he wears so well.

“And my hole, on Dagobah,” says Yoda.

“I always did like the idea of living more simply,” says Qui-Gon, looking wistfully at the two threadbare blankets on the bed.

Since over the past few weeks Luke has been repeatedly subject to a rather horrific nightmare involving his eventual and very painful death alone in a tiny hovel-- one that somehow managed to be miserably swampy and desert-dry at the same time-- he hopes they aren’t just being polite; Luke would much prefer to go to his eventual and very painful death in a home that he can at least tolerate living in.)

And with the arrival of the Force Ghosts, so ended any dreams Luke had had to spend the years of his exile in quiet, uninterrupted meditation, mostly on the subject of how badly he had failed not only himself, but his students and family and friends and quite likely the entire galaxy. He now appeared to be in for the rest of his life surrounded by shiny blue versions of revered Jedi Masters (and Anakin) who seemed only intent on how best to cheat the next hand of sabacc.

“Cheat, I do not,” says Yoda one day, whilst he is blatantly using the Force to rig the shuffle, “it is not my fault if taught me to play sabacc properly, no one has.”

The other three groan hugely and roll their eyes.

“Master Yoda, your cheating at sabacc has been legendary since before my Master was a student,” says Qui-Gon, with a tired sigh. “That excuse stopped working about two centuries ago.”

“A Sith, your Master was,” says Yoda, with a sly look. “How know you that lying he was not when told you this he did.”

Qui-Gon rolls his eyes again. “Because, Master, while Dooku was a Sith, and a crafty bastard in his own right, he learnt very few of his sneaky ways from his _Sith_ apprenticeship.”

Yoda huffs, and folds his hands on his lap. “Very sneaky, Dooku was not,” he says. “Offended I am that you think so little of my ability to teach cunning.”

Obi-Wan sniggers into his beard in a manner most unbefitting of a Jedi Master, and Anakin outright giggles. Qui-Gon somehow manages to look offended on behalf of himself, Yoda, _and_ his late unlamented Master, the erstwhile Count Dooku.

Yoda huffs and rearranges his ghostly robes around himself, and several cards fall out of his sleeve before he can catch them.

“Fallen in here, these must have,” he says, picking it up off the floor, and puts them back in with the rest of the deck. The other round the table exchange looks, and Yoda glares at them. “Cheating, I am not,” he says.

Neither Obi-Wan nor Qui-Gon looks ready to believe him, and Anakin looks ready for a fight, so it is at this point that Luke decides to leave them be, and he takes a walk around the small island he now calls home.

It takes him about half an hour, including the time it takes for him to climb up and down the stairs three times (he is still a Jedi, and even in exile he intends to keep his fitness up) and even do a bit of poking around in a rock pool he finds a few metres up from the waves at the bottom of the cliff. The rock pool is fairly thrumming with the Living Force-- the whole planet is, Luke can understand why the Jedi of old might have built their temple here-- but Luke can't see anything living in it; just the water, and a few dark, underwater corners his desert-kid self doesn't really want to look too closely at.

Of course, Luke wouldn't know what sorts of creatures lived in a rock pool if one of them bit him on the finger-- and if any of the Mon Cal he knows are even half as truthful about water creatures as he thinks they would be, that is a distinct possibility-- so he decides to leave the rock pools alone, at least until he can drag Qui-Gon or Yoda down here to look at them for him, and explain to him what sort of pitfalls he might run into with regard to vicious, bitey menaces of the sea.

Then he goes back into his house (still Force Ghost-infested), cooks his dinner at the primitive stove in the corner whilst pointedly ignoring the revered Jedi Masters (and Anakin) gambling rowdily on the other side of the room, and goes outside to eat in the cool of the evening breezes off the sea.

When he gets back, the Force Ghosts are still playing. Luke would congratulate them on their truly singular focus, only it’s taking all his not-inconsiderable patience not to somehow use the Force to sweep them out of his house. Instead, he plugs his ears with two little bundles of one of the soft, fibrous plants native to Ahch’To, and mumbles a grudging goodnight before falling asleep on his bed.

 

* * *

 

Sabacc is one thing: the day Yoda and Obi-Wan take it upon themselves to offer him their best tips on darksiding ex-apprentices and how to make exile more comfortable for yourself is quite another.

Luke is just settling down on the helpful, flat stone next to the cliff a few hundred metres from his house, immersing himself in the Force, and settling down for a really good, meditative brooding session, when the translucent forms of Yoda and Obi-Wan appear behind him, followed by Anakin and Qui-Gon a few metres back.

“Helpful it is not, to brood,” says Yoda. “Tried it, I have. You may yet be needed, young Skywalker; prepared, you must be.”

Obi-Wan nods. “You know well enough that when I say that I know what you are going through I do not say it lightly, Luke,” he says. “I spent nearly twenty years of my life alone on Tatooine. I would not wish for you to be as alone as I was.”

Qui-Gon clears his throat meaningfully. Obi-Wan rolls his eyes. “Yes, Qui-Gon. Your company, however irregular, was much appreciated. I have thanked you at least one thousand times already. Also, that is not the point of this discussion.”

“It is hardly my fault you were so slow to learn to see Force Ghosts, Obi-Wan,” Qui-Gon says.

“But truly, can all the fault for poor learning be cast at the feet of the student? Surely some of the blame must lay with the Master. In this case, for example--”

“Also, this is probably at least a bit my fault,” interjects Anakin from Luke’s other side, while Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon bicker along what appear to be very well worn tracks, and Yoda examines the tile under his stick with apparent immersive interest. “So I apologise once again for being such an incredible, galactic-scale fuckup.”

Luke smiles awkwardly at his father, and wonders how on earth he's supposed to respond to a statement like that. He looks to the other ghosts for guidance, but finds them all looking down in different directions, expressions rapt with interest, as if suddenly the grass has manifested pink spots in the shape of a bantha, or they are contemplating a new and exciting direction in the flow of the Force.

Luke nods, putting on his best Jedi face. Anakin nods in return, equally gravely, and the tension in the air clears a little.

“As I said,” Yoda continues as if Anakin’s very awkward interruption hadn’t happened, “think on the past too deeply you should not. Change it we cannot. But the future, prepare for it we must. Darker things I sense on the horizon, even now.”

Luke nods along with the others. He’s sensed similar darkenings in the currents of the Force himself, especially since Ben-- Leia and Han’s Ben, not Obi-Wan-- Fell to the Dark and destroyed all he had worked to build.

“I know how you feel,” says Obi-Wan, placing a ghostly hand on Luke’s shoulder. “It is very painful to lose a student to the Dark Side.”

“As do I,” says Qui-Gon. “I would offer my condolences again, but I fear they are painfully inadequate in the face of such trials.”

After Qui-Gon’s pronouncement, Luke pauses a moment and looks ‘round the three of them. “Have you _all_ had a student turn to the Dark Side?” he asks incredulously.

“I haven't!” says Anakin. Obi-Wan, Luke, and Yoda give him a Look. Anakin rolls his eyes.

“Technically, didn’t the Son manipulate Ahsoka into the going Dark Side on Mortis?” asks Obi-Wan.

Anakin scowls. “I suppose.”

“My master also Fell to the Dark Side,” says Qui-Gon to Luke, probably trying to be helpful. “And I myself very nearly did, once. Fortunately, Obi-Wan was there, and he was able to… redirect my focus back to the Light.”

“So this is just something that… happens, then,” Luke says, wondering if Jedi are ever going to stop utterly confounding him.

“Well, funnily enough, in other teaching lines or at other points in history, it almost never happens,” says Obi-Wan. “But the Clone Wars were not kind to our souls, and many Fell who otherwise would not have.”

“Skywalker temper, also does not help,” says Yoda. “A path to the Dark Side, anger is.”

There is a collective sigh of boredom, probably a reflex at this point, from all four non-Yoda participants in the conversation, bracing for the incoming lecture.

Then: “Know this you do,” says Yoda. “I will not repeat myself. Tiresome it becomes.”

There is another sigh, this time of relief, but it is quickly muffled by those members of the group who still remember the painful _thwack!_ of Yoda’s gimer stick to the shins if he judged them not to be listening suitably attentively, and had any sense of self-preservation at all. Which is to say, everyone except Anakin, who is quite lacking in the latter quality.

He does, however, manage to look quite sheepish, and passes it off as a weird, ghostly coughing fit, which everyone except pretends to ignore.

“You know, I think at this point we can say it’s a time-honoured tradition for a Jedi Master to go into exile in order to escape their problems,” says Obi-Wan. “Or, I mean, there used to be Jedi who used to exile themselves to remote systems just because they could.”

“To become closer to the Force,” says Qui-Gon quickly, “and in order to better master the self. But yes, Jedi Masters have most certainly been known to try to find refuge from their problems in various places out on the Rim, or even in Wild Space.”

“I didn’t think _you_ were known for running from your problems, Qui-Gon,” says Luke.

“Oh, I tried,” says Qui-Gon. “Obi-Wan wouldn’t let me.”

“Really?” says Obi-Wan. “I seem to recall that much more of my effort was expended trying to stop you from running right _at_ your problems.”

Qui-Gon frowns. “I meant ‘running away’ metaphorically, Obi-Wan,” he says.

Obi-Wan rolls his eyes. “Ah yes, I remember the tactic,” he said. “Metaphorically running away from your feelings straight into the nearest available problem, presumably in the hopes that it will kill the feelings before it kills you. I can’t say I ever understood the impulse.”

“Well, you wouldn’t,” says Qui-Gon. “You just either repressed your feelings, or ran right after them into whatever mess they were headed for.”

Obi-Wan frowns, and looks to the others for support.

“Not wrong, he is,” says Yoda. “But much better you did get at repressing them, as you aged. And besides, Qui-Gon is not one to lecture on running _at_ feelings-- he has done his fair share of this, also.”

Obi-Wan looks a little smug at this, Qui-Gon a little less so. Anakin merely looks put out at all the attention going on people who are not him.

“What about me?” he says.

“Oh, you know what you do,” says Obi-Wan, “you run head first into your feelings _and_ into the nearest available problem, shouting and brandishing your lightsaber.”

“We must all be thankful that your son has developed the restraint you never could,” says Qui-Gon.

Anakin frowns, and Obi-Wan puts a placating hand on his arm.

“You know we’ve forgiven you, Anakin,” says Obi-Wan. "We're just teasing." 

“Of course,” says Anakin. “I’m just-- well, me.”

“You are.” Obi-Wan sounds much too fond, and Yoda looks uncomfortable. Luke reflects that he thinks that even he doesn’t like Anakin as much as Obi-Wan does, and Luke is his son. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke thinks, must be possessed of the most patience and forbearance of any man ever to live by several orders of magnitude. Apparently, if Obi-Wan liked you, even having spent twenty years or so going on the destructive galactic-scale equivalent of a massive drugged-up bender-- only with murder, Force Lightning, and widespread oppression of the populace instead of any actual drugs-- did not necessarily preclude the possibility of him loving you forever. Provided you went in for a little remorse and threw someone even eviller down a garbage chute, at least.

As for why Qui-Gon seems to like Anakin, Luke can only conclude that the relative cuteness and tragedy factors of a tiny Anakin Skywalker, age nine, cruelly enslaved on Tatooine, somehow outweighed whatever crimes the man had committed whilst Qui-Gon was dead.

Lost in thought, Luke doesn’t notice that Obi-Wan is addressing him again until he feels the odd, cold sensation of a Force Ghost touching him from around the region of his right shoulder.

“Luke,” says Obi-Wan. “The point is not to take what Ben has become personally-- of course, some of that is more or less unavoidable-- but everything that happens in this universe is the will of the Force in some manner or other, and it may be that this is but its latest test. You must trust that Ben will find his way, as you must find yours-- and know that we are here for you. You are never so alone as you may believe, my boy.

“Now,” he says. “Who’s up for a little dejarik?”

“Okay, right,” says Luke, resolving to meditate for a few more hours every day until he sorts out all this new information, but his words are quite, quite lost in the enthusiastic agreement from the other three Force Ghosts.

And so the conversation ends, with Obi-Wan producing a dejarik board from Force only knew where. Maybe the usual rules of matter don’t apply to Force Ghosts, thinks Luke, given they aren’t actually here. Though they are, for spirits, quite unnecessarily forceful.

Ah well.

 

* * *

 

“Come on, old man, you can do better than that,” says Obi-Wan to Qui-Gon, as Qui-Gon roundly loses yet another round of sabacc-- dejarik having gotten boring after a day or two, apparently.

"Old man?” scoffs Qui-Gon. “In a room with Yoda, I hardly even count as a child. And coming from you, Obi-Wan-- why, you look even older than I do." He grins, and Anakin and Yoda roll their eyes. This is a variation upon a conversation they have with some regularity-- Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan competing over how old each of them is, given ages of death and respective levels of well-preservedness etc. etc., and usually ending with a dismissive remark from Yoda about younglings scrapping, or a group bemoaning of the unfairness of Anakin’s youthful Force Ghost self. Luke has never joined in on that one, although he truly does wish to express to someone, someday, exactly how disturbing it is to have a father who appears to be younger than oneself.

Obi-Wan huffs. "Let's see how you'd look if someone stranded you on a desert planet for nineteen years, then. You wouldn't be able to keep any of that ridiculous hair, for a start."

Anakin shudders. "The sand," he says, with a far off look in his eyes. "Can you even _imagine_." His lip curls in disgust, mirrored in softer form on Obi-Wan’s own face.

They share a moment of silence for the poor souls suffering on desert planets, and Luke can't help but feel a little offended. Sure, he hates Tatooine as much as any sentient with actual _sense_ , but it’s _his_ awful pile of galactic cast offs and itchy sand and he doesn't like the way they're talking about it. Tatooine has its upsides. Luke is about to tell them so, but then he has to stop and think for a minute in order to remember one of them. And another minute.

After his third think--coming up with nothing better than "shooting at womp rats was a fun way to forget you were bored out of your mind and had no future to speak of unless you could by some miracle get off that damn rock"-- he is forced to admit he had drawn a rather definitive blank.

"Wow, Tatooine was a hole, wasn't it," he says, apropos of nothing-- the conversation has moved on since to Yoda asking them how they think he looks for his age-- excellent, everyone agrees, but Luke thinks it’s mostly to get him to drop the quite-disturbing topic before they all become even more traumatised-- but Anakin beams at him nonetheless.

"I guess you really are my kid!" he says, laughing out loud.

Obi-Wan raises an eyebrow. “I rather thought we’d established that,” he says.

“Quite,” says Qui-Gon, with a wry smile.

“I know!” says Anakin. “But I still don’t really know how my genes turned out such a nice kid.”

Luke is oddly touched. Also, concerned for Anakin’s standards of ‘nice kid,’ given he is now well past forty, and also responsible for screwing up far more than his fair share of things in the galaxy.

Yoda and Obi-Wan are looking at Anakin like he has a point. Qui-Gon, who probably mostly remembers Anakin when he was a sweet nine year old, looks at him a little sadly.

“It must be Padmé’s influence,” says Obi-Wan.

Anakin pouts at him.

“What?” Obi-Wan says. “You just said yourself you didn’t know how it happened, and I gave you an answer.”

“That isn’t the point.”

“Right,” says Luke, cutting Obi-Wan off before he and Anakin can get into yet another pointless argument. They seem to enjoy them, at least, but Luke is still slightly less than pleased that his living room has turned into the set for the Galaxy’s Next Top Dead Jedi Grudge Match.  “Aren’t you all in the middle of a card game?”

“Yes, we are,” says Yoda. “Start paying attention to the game you should, before Qui-Gon cheats his way into his first win of the past twenty years.”

“As if.” Anakin snorts, and picks up the cards that Yoda has just dealt him. His face falls as he looks at his cards, and he curses a blue streak in Huttese that Han would probably have been scandalised by-- although maybe not quite Lando.

“I don’t understand how I can keep losing against Anakin,” says Qui-Gon to Obi-Wan. “He has the worst sabacc face in the history of the galaxy, and no concept of subtlety to speak of.”

“I don’t suppose this would be the time to tell you yours is nearly as bad?” asks Obi-Wan. “Besides, Anakin’s only misdirecting you here, which you would know if you’d been paying attention at all." 

“I was listening to the Force for guidance,” says Qui-Gon, sounding offended. Yoda and Obi-Wan snort and exchange a look.

“Cares not the Force does about the twists and turns of a sabacc game,” Yoda says. “Rely on your other instincts, you must, Qui-Gon.”

“Yes, Master,” Qui-Gon says. Then, realising what he’s just said, his cheeks go more opaque out of embarrassment. “But why, exactly, should I take sabacc advice from a cheating green troll?”

“Know I am right, you do,” says Yoda. “Also, tedious this arguing is, and holding up the game.”

There are general nods of agreement from around the circle, and they settle down to playing quite calmly. Luke goes to get a drink of water from the rudimentary indoor plumbing system he’s set up and considers leaving them to it. Of course, it isn’t as if he has anything else better to do, aside from taking yet another lap around the tiny island-- he and his father are still working out how to fix the ship he crash landed here some months ago (he does not appreciate the back-seat mechanic-ing, but he thinks that it's probably the closest he and his father will ever come to and actual bonding activity, so he doesn't complain even when Anakin tries to suggest something about engine that's operating on assumptions at least twenty years out of date) so exploring Ahch’To further is out, and he has already spent three hours in meditation today, and the same time training with his lightsaber-- so he settles down to watch. Again.

He isn’t quite brave enough to join them yet; Luke is a fair sabacc player himself, and he has met, well, Lando Calrissian, an inveterate card cheat and professional conman, and played against him, though not won. Also, he knows there are many worst scoundrels in the galaxy than Lando, but despite all evidence to the contrary he has still been reluctant to accept that some of them may wear the faces of kindly or at least imposingly honest-seeming Jedi Masters.

Luke wonders idly at what he might learn if he joined them, and then remembers Yoda’s look from the time he lost eight games in a row, and decides very quickly that he’d rather just watch.

This one is a quiet hand, without half the usual bickering over unsubtle cheating-- or alternatively, who fucked up worst that time when etc. etc. (the answer being almost invariably “Anakin” for situations which involve him, although at any point before he joined the Order it is equally likely to be Obi-Wan or Qui-Gon-- this despite the fact, Luke remembers, that whilst Qui-Gon was still living, Obi-Wan was still a Padawan or even younger-- which probably says something about Qui-Gon, but at this point in his life Luke is not sure he cares what, except that Yoda in his old age has become very good at sneakily delegating responsibility for difficult decisions onto other beings.)-- that usually goes along with the Force Ghosts playing sabacc.

A game or two passes without notable comments, and then: “The sunsets were rather lovely,” says Obi-Wan, midway through a hand. “On Tatooine, I mean. That was one nice thing. And there were a few desert flowers I was rather fond of.” He has the slightly mad, faraway look in his eye which warns everyone else not to engage with that sentence at all. The other Force Ghosts look away instead, and Qui-Gon goes back to shuffling the deck with an unnecessary degree of focus.

“I suppose they were,” says Luke, trying to sound contemplative, although he is for the most part wondering if he’d been unfair and blinded by un-Jedi-like personal bias when declaring Tatooine ‘a hole’ earlier. His main recollection of a Tatooine sunset is all tied up in the exact moment when he realised Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen were dead, and he doesn’t remember the desert flowers at all-- not that he would have seen them, speeding over the ground at nearly podracing speed as he liked to do as a teenager.

“There wasn’t much good to say about the place,” Obi-Wan says, rueful tone in his voice. “I made my peace with it, however, and my peace with myself. Mastery of the self is all the mastery we are ever truly capable of, in the end. Until death, at least, but I feel sure the living still have need of you.”

“Ben--” says Luke. “I--”

“You’ll be alright, Luke. I have every confidence in you. And you have time; it will not be for some time yet, if the Force is not yet a liar. ”

Luke nods. “Thank you,

“Back to the game,” says Yoda. “Again, tiresome this is.”

* * *

 

Three years, more hours of meditation and lightsaber practice than Luke had thought possible, and innumerable hands of sabacc later, he thinks he’s just about getting used to the whole Force Ghosts playing card games in his living room thing. The fact that he has a spaceship that works well enough for at least inter-planetary flights within Ahch’To’s system is a plus, as well as the fact that enough time has passed that even three Jedi Masters (and one Anakin) are running low on their stocks of advice to give him.

He has also acquired-- through a number of tedious exercises in trial and error with the resources available on Ahch’To--  some decorations for his house, as well as a few new pieces of furniture and a rug for in front of the fireplace. All in all, his exile isn’t even half as miserable as he deserves, and Luke is very much the happier for it.

Then, of course, Wedge Antilles shows up in a battered old X-Wing.

**Author's Note:**

> Well. This is definitely a fanfic.
> 
> Hope you liked it, and thank you very much for reading. I am on tumblr [here,](http://sapphicmodernity.tumblr.com/) if for any reason you want to know what my internet ~aesthetic looks like, or talk to me there instead of here!!


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